Every morning in Luang Prabang, hundreds of Buddhists monks from over 80 monasteries all around the city take part in the tak bat ceremony. This is the ceremony whereby monks collect food and alms for the day. This practice of offering food to monks is practised mostly in Theravada Buddhist countries like Laos and Thailand, where it sustains large communities of monks.
The monks start this practice early in the morning (some as early as 5 am) and they walk single file in silence, carrying their alms bowls strapped around their shoulders in front of them. The local people wait for them on the sidewalks and as the monks pass by, they place mainly sticky rice and sometimes other food like bananas in the monks' bowls.
We got up very early on two occasions to watch this beautiful ritual and were just blown away by the sea of orange. This will be one of the most vivid images that we will take away from our memorable visit to Luang Prabang.
While this is a must-see in Luang Prabang and one of the main reasons why people visit the city, it is also being endangered by unruly tourists who see this as a show to enjoy rather than a religious ceremony to be respected. We did our best to keep our distance, while also respecting the monks and their space, but there were others who were unfortunately not as considerate.
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